Sludgeburg interview
Hello! You describe the band as being formed through a mutual obsession with doom metal, but the promo also mentions digging through classic heavy metal archives. What older records outside the obvious sludge canon shaped Sludgeburg the most?
Pat: we take a lot of inspiration from the classics, like Dio, Sabbath, etc but there are other classic bands like Elf, Leaf Hound, Cream etc and some more modern classics like Soundgarden, Probot and Mastodon that blend into the sludgeburg sound. Also, ‘sludge canon’ is a pretty wicked name - might have to steal that one haha.
John: Not Metal, but I am endlessly inspired by Chet Baker - In Tokyo or Wede Harer Guzo by Dahlak Band and Hailu Mergia.
A lot of younger sludge bands seem obsessed with recreating the surface-level filth of the genre - fuzz pedals, slow riffs, tortured vocals - but often miss the actual groove. What do you think separates real sludge from cosplay sludge?
Pat: Fuzz pedals, slow riffs and tortured vocals sound good to me, haha. I actually love hearing a guitar sound boosted to the moon and an amp on the verge of melting, feeding back and just leaning in to that with slow riffs - I mean, that's kinda what sludge is about. I might get bored listening to a whole album worth of that kind of primal sludge, though - for me, I like a bit of dynamics in there - some groovy drums go a long way.
The phrase “sludge is life” gets thrown around a lot, but sludge has always been one of the least glamorous forms of heavy music. It’s ugly, stubborn, uncomfortable. What is it about that ugliness that keeps pulling you back?
Pat: You could say that we are ugly, stubborn and make people uncomfortable in person anyway, so the sludge life is a place of comfort. We can’t make pretty polished music with conviction and honesty, so we play what feels like home. So much effort in the world goes into dividing and separating and categorizing everything that it can be liberating to flip the table over and just let the universe blend everything back together into a fine sludge.
John: The more we gig, the more I realise that I really need to call people mother fuckers.
Your sound is described as “enthalpic sludge”, which is a pretty unusual phrase. Is that just colorful language, or is there an actual concept behind how you think about the music?
Pat: That is a bit of a colourful description but I think it has a beautiful symmetry to it. Its inspiring that you can look at absolutely anything like a giant star, a whale a pint of beer or whatever and define it in terms of enthalpy - matter, energy all boiled down to one linear value. Maybe that mirrors the process of artistic expression: you observe your surroundings, ponder them and produce sludge.
John: For sure, as far as lyrical content is considered a lot of our themes focus on the messy, uncomfortable realities having a body, feeling it change and feeling the world change around you. Pat can speak more to the musical side of things if you will, but to me there is this fun tension of ideas of how we'd like our songs to sound.
A lot of sludge was born out of misery - poverty, addiction, violence, hopelessness. But newer bands often approach it from admiration rather than lived experience. Does that difference matter?
John: Suffering is an unavoidable aspect of the human condition. To quote philosopher Talal Asad, “When you have a small cut or sore in your mouth, your tongue constantly, involuntarily returns to it. You cannot ignore it.” I don't think that there is a meaningful bar you need to cross before you can write about the scummy parts of life, so long as you are speaking with an authentic voice.
Pat: I think misery and hopelessness inspire a lot of other art as well, from pop music, to visual arts and so on. Its just how artists process the heavy parts of life. Existence is pain.
There’s a strong classic heavy metal element mentioned in your origins. That’s interesting, because some of the best sludge bands always had more traditional metal DNA than people admit. Do you consciously carry that into the songwriting?
Pat: Yeah, absolutely - in another timeline we would probably be a swords, leather and dragons band but we are living in the sludge timeline, so here we are.
Playing the Rockview Hotel and doing a regional mini-tour is where a lot of real bands get forged - not on social media, but in bars, shitty PA systems and half-broken backlines. What did those early gigs teach you?
John: Mostly not to give a fuck. We take a lot of pride in bringing the same energy no matter what the room is. When you're paying your dues you can't be picky, you have to treat every gig like its the most important show of your career and try to make everyone in the room believe in your vision.
Pat: Yeah, John is right - its important to not give a fuck. All the cliches are true! Play to the back of the room, always bring the biggest version of yourself you can.
What’s the most overused thing in modern sludge right now?
Pat: Laptops at live shows!
A lot of classic sludge was regional - New Orleans, Savannah, North Carolina, etc. Do you think Alberta has its own ugliness that can shape a distinct sludge sound?
Pat: Absolutely - I mean anywhere on earth - if you look hard enough, you will find (literal) sludge, but its often swept under the rug. Alberta is a rug free zone for the most part - so the sludge is always there in plain sight. I wouldn’t say there is a distinct sound you could pinpoint - everyone is doing their own thing and that's healthy.
Your visual aesthetic feels deliberately over-the-top: slime, mutation, cosmic rot, grotesque cartoon energy. Was that chosen as contrast to the heaviness, or because you grew up on the same garbage cinema and horror junk as half the sludge underground?
John: I think a part of what makes the project work is the juxtaposition between over the top silliness and serious artistic intent. You're right The presentation is almost comic, but in a way its makes the project more grounded, ya know, more real than a strict adherence to being bleak or brutal. In a way that can be really inauthentic. You lose your privilege to have an audience if you're bullshitting them about who you are to force yourself into a genre.
Pat: The cartoon art, and the over the top songwriting I think help to avoid that uncanny valley effect, and produce a more genuine experience that still carries a meaningful message.
Sludge has always had this weird relationship with doom - related, but not identical. Where do you think Sludgeburg sits on that spectrum?
Pat: We bounce around the spectrum from one song to the next at this point and I like that. I like having the freedom to chase down an idea and not worry about if its too doom, not doom enough, too sludgey etc. So far it works.
The promo talks about contemplating constellations while wallowing in the ooze, which sounds half poetic and half stoned as hell. Is there actually a cosmic side to the band, or is that just the natural result of playing riffs for too long?
John: In other projects my lyrical content was really personal and the songs were in one way or another about me. With Metal, in general, there is a fantasy element so I wanted to write these sort of cosmic songs. This winds up creating a natural tension I've been having fun with. We are humans spinning around the sun in a universe unknowably vast and time is this ocean and we only experience a drop of it. Despite being aware of this scale, we are almost exclusively aware of how our body feels at this exact moment. In life You can be stuck suffering with daily toils, but in a rare moment you look up and are soothed by the night sky.
Pat: It can be a trip to realize your place in the universe, even for just an instant. But as a musician there is always a song in the background in your head in those instants, so finding the fit between songs and those moments of clarity / existential terror is a fun challenge.
A lot of bands love to talk about “bringing the riffs”. Fine. But let’s be honest - writing a memorable riff is harder now than ever because fifty years of heavy music already exist. How do you know when you’ve hit on one worth keeping?
Pat: You could say everything has been done already, and you would probably be right. Everything is a copy of a copy of a copy etc. But if you let that bother you, you will never get anywhere. If you find a riff comes back into your head later, and you catch yourself subconsciously humming it or something, that's a good sign.
Sludge crowds can be strange - sometimes total riff addicts, sometimes punks, sometimes doom purists, sometimes drunk maniacs who just want noise. What kind of audience feels most at home with your sound?
John: From a performance aspect, we love all ages shows. Those Motherfuckers bring the energy. They are really living for the music at that moment.
Pat: Yeah, John is right about the all ages motherfuckers! I also love to connect with the drunk maniacs!
Name one obscure sludge or doom release you think every serious riff-head should own.
John: Burnt Lung kicks ass.
Pat: Orc by the band Orc. Such a cool record.
The first demo is usually where a band still sounds hungry and unfiltered. Are you already hearing things in those recordings you want to destroy or improve on the follow-up?
John: Fuck ya, the newest songs are always what I am most excited for.
Pat: Yeah, I have a few things I’d like to change on the first demo if I had a time machine, but I’m still happy with it. I’m looking forward to getting the new songs out: we’ve grown a lot as a band, toured together, gotten tighter and found a better grip on some of our old songs too. We’re also a bit more studio savvy than when we went in to record the demo, so hopefully we can pull all that together in the next release.
You talk about “bringing sludge metal to the masses” - but history shows the masses usually ruin whatever they embrace. If Sludgeburg actually became big, do you think the music would survive that intact?
John: a lot of the appeal of Metal is that it is counterculture. Growing up I was a freak and I was attracted to heavy music as an outlet. It hasn't really changed for me, it is still about expressing myself. So ya. If you don't like Sludgeburg FUCK YOU. If you like Sludgeburg - FUCK YOU!
Pat: We just bring the sludge - the embracing is pretty limited, haha. I’ve always been able to find ways to keep making music one way or another, so hopefully the sludge well doesn’t run dry!
What’s more important to Sludgeburg - the perfect riff, the perfect groove, or the perfect feeling of total sonic collapse?
Pat: What's important is how the music makes you feel - where it takes you. Riffs, grooves etc are tools, but the end product is art, which should transcend the tools of its creation and become a thing of its own.